Small, handheld computing devices have been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. The devices are known by different names, such as palmtops, pocket computers, personal digital assistants, personal organizers, H/PCs, or the like. Additionally, many portable telephone systems, such as cellular phones, incorporate sufficient computing capabilities to fall within the category of the small, handheld computing devices. These devices, hereinafter “mobile computing devices” provide much of the same functionality as their larger counterparts. In particular, mobile computing devices provide many functions to users including word processing, task management, spreadsheet processing, address book functions, Internet browsing, and calendaring, as well as many other functions.
One commonly used feature of mobile computing devices is to configure a mobile computing device to notify the user of an upcoming event (also referred to herein as an “appointment”) such as a meeting with a co-worker or a customer, a teleconference, a doctor's appointment, a television show, etc. The mobile computing device will generate a notification to the user at a default (or selectable) time period before the start of the appointment. For example, if a user has a 10:00 AM appointment, the user can enter an appointment in a calendaring application running on a mobile computing device. The mobile computing device will then generate a notification at a preselected time (e.g., fifteen minutes) before 10:00 AM. Typically, notifications may be presented to a user in many different ways. However, the preselected time may not be adequate for some scenarios because it cannot account for other circumstances.